Short Takes – 9-26-22

Ian continues on perilous path toward Florida. WashingtonPost.com article. Headed for eastern Gulf Coast, still unsure where. Pull quote: “The uncertainty in the forecast stems from an approaching trough, or dip in the jet stream, over the northern United States. Ian may or may not hitch a ride. If it does, it would be scooped north and east more quickly and come ashore as a more serious hurricane in the Florida peninsula on Wednesday.”

NASA spacecraft will slam into an asteroid Monday — if all goes right. WashingtonPost.com article. DART mission impact expected Monday evening. Pull quote: ““We’ve got to have such technology,” he said. “It would be prudent upon us to test that all out ahead of time, so we’re not trying to do it for the first time when we really need it to work.””

Shutdown threat grows as lawmakers struggle to reach final deal. TheHill.com article. CR still has contentious components to work through. Pull quotes: “However, Republicans have been less open to funding for the nation’s monkeypox and coronavirus response efforts — a sentiment that appears to have only further cemented in light of Biden’s recent comments declaring the pandemic “over.””

Five things to know about NASA’s mission to hit an asteroid. TheHill.com article. DART mission overview. Pull quote: “DART is estimated to slam into Dimorphos around 7:14 p.m. at more than 14,000 miles per hour. NASA officials will be able to estimate the results of the strike by using ground-based telescopes.”

Medics ‘flying blind’ in fight against superbugs due to patchy diagnostics. Telegraph.co.uk article. Problems with antibiotic resistant bacteria in Africa. Pull quote: “Clinics and hospitals are also relying on a narrow arsenal of antibiotics. Four drugs make up two-thirds of all the antibiotics used in healthcare, the researchers found.” Remember monkeypox problems.

The U.S. Is Running Short of Land for Housing. WSJ.com article. Land use restrictions and lack of infrastructure causing problems. Pull quote: “Land-use restrictions and a lack of public investment in roads, rail and other infrastructure have made it harder than ever for developers to find sites near big population centers to build homes. As people keep moving to cities such as Austin, Phoenix and Tampa, they are pushing up the price of dirt and making the housing shortages in these fast-growing areas even worse.”

Thinking Like a Cyberattacker to Protect User Data. HomelandSecurityNewsWire.com article. Misleading title, look at potential side channel attacks. Pull quote: “When the researchers used this model to launch side-channel attacks, they were surprised by how quickly the attacks worked. They were able to recover full cryptographic keys from two different victim programs.”

Covid-tracking program lacked bare minimum cyber protections. WashingtonPost.com article. Look at since pulled restricted-distribution IG report. Pull quote: ““Cybersecurity controls for both systems were not implemented before employment because HHS officials prioritized deploying the systems for operational use to achieve the agency’s mission of combating the covid-19 pandemic over meeting all the federal requirements before deployment.”” Raise your hand if you are surprised…. No hands????

NASA strikes asteroid with spacecraft in historic planetary defense mission. TheHill.com article. DART hit the asteroid moon. Pull quote: “The DART team estimated they would have a full assessment on the collision in about two months, including details of how much the spacecraft pushed the asteroid out of its orbit. NASA and APL were hoping to change the orbit of Dimorphos by several minutes.”